Kasich and the coke plant

Toledo Free Press stood beside Toledo’s media outlets in 2005 when Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, Oregon Mayor Marge Brown and several officials gathered for a symbolic ribbon-cutting announcement for a new FDS Coke Plant to be built on the Port of Toledo on Maumee Bay. The project would include a 135-megawatt green-powered electrical plant to supply energy generated from excess steam to Ohio municipalities to be delivered by American Municipal Power in Columbus.

It was an optimistic announcement, with talk of jobs, new technologies, jobs, a near-billion-dollar investment and jobs.

Yet here we are, half a decade later, and there has been little progress in constructing the plant.

That is not through any fault of FDS. The company has promoted new technology involving the control of mercury emissions in its cooperative dealings with the Environmental Protection Agency. Last March, the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission granted summary judgment to FDS, concluding that the FDS Coke Plant’s Permit to Install has not expired. That was thought to be the last hurdle in the long battle to get the plant built. There is plenty of support for the plant. The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and the City of Toledo support the construction; funds from Lucas County were used in the early stages of the process.

But ongoing litigation from the Toledo Sierra Club led by Oregon City Councilwoman Sandy Bihn and residents of the Village of Harbor View have kept the plant from moving forward.

“We think they should be investing in wind and solar components or other alternative energy that would be cleaner,” Bihn said.

The opponents have stalled this jobs-generating plant for too long, and now FDS officials are appealing to Ohio Gov. John Kasich to cut through the controversy and issue an executive order that would allow the plant to proceed.

When we endorsed candidate Kasich, we praised him for pledging to seek direct input from business owners and private enterprise, and for “offering a clear logic that trumps unfulfilled promises.”

There would be no better example, no better message to send, than for our new governor to review both sides of this case, and hopefully conclude as the Port Authority, city and EPA have: The FDS Coke Plant should proceed without further delay.

We respectfully urge Gov. Kasich to expedite this construction, before more time melts away and the greater opportunity is lost.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

FDS Coke Plant seeks local, state support

FDS Coke Plant LLC is seeking support from local officials all the way to Gov. John Kasich for its proposed coke plant project on the Port of Toledo on Maumee Bay.

George Weber, president of FDS Coke Plant, sent a detailed letter to Kasich Jan. 18 seeking his and the state’s support of the project, describing it as “a tremendous opportunity to kick- start the State of Ohio’s economic resurgence in 2011.”

The project consists of a manufacturing plant that would supply raw material to Midwest steel plants ,serving the domestic car and finished product industries and thus create jobs and revenues in Ohio, according to the letter.

The project would include a 135-megawatt green-powered electrical plant located at the site to supply energy generated from excess steam to Ohio municipalities. It would be delivered by American Municipal Power in Columbus.

There would be a capital investment of more than $950 million during construction with an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 direct construction jobs, plus material purchases, subcontractors, supplies, equipment rentals, and labor costs estimated at $900 million, according to Weber’s letter to Kasich.

Location for the propsed FDS coke plant.

The final financing would include Toledo-based broker insurance, infrastructure to the site and Ohio Air Quality Development Authority bond issuance.

In the letter, Weber said, “The project will act as an ongoing economic engine for continued growth in Northwest Ohio with an estimated 220 on-site manufacturing jobs.”

Ohio sales and income taxes are estimated to be $45 million with additional local property and school taxes, according to FDS.

“We have not heard from the state or governor’s office about it,” said Tom Kovacik of TLK Consulting, who has been working on the coke plant project with the FDS team of Weber and Bill Garber.

Weber said the project has been delayed for the past six years by “Ohio’s environmental permitting hurdles and by ongoing litigation sponsored by Ohio opponents.”

During those six years, FDS has spent $20 million on the completion of detailed engineering plans, construction contracts and power plant electric grid interconnection activities, according to Weber’s letter.

The final financing has been delayed due to ongoing litigation from the Toledo Sierra Club led by local resident Sandy Bihn and residents of the Village of Harbor View, located adjacent to First Energy’s Bayshore coal-fired power plant and the BP refinery.

“We support the use of steam to generate electricity from the proposed plant,” said Bihn, who lives on Bayshore Road in Oregon near the project site and serves on Oregon City Council.

Bihn said the main problems opponents have with the project are that they have no idea who will own and operate the facility, the technology for it has not been used anywhere else and the investors appear to be marketing the permit for the plant.

Bihn said the design of the facility has changed since the permit was issued in 2003 and construction did not start on the project as required by the approved permit.

“We would like to have everything out in the open with a transparent process and that has not been the case,” Bihn said. “We don’t know who the investors are, but they seem to have a lot of clout in the state.

“It’s a bad way for the region to do business. For the amount of land and pollution involved, we think they should be investing in wind and solar components or other alternative energy that would be cleaner,” Bihn said.

Mayor Carl Stanoyevic of the Village of Harbor View could not be reached for comment.

“This local Sierra Club chapter and the Village of Harbor View are on the legal record before the Environmental Review Appeal Commission (ERAC) and the 10th District Court of Appeals as having no technical, public health, or environmental issues with the Ohio EPA Air Quality Permit to install a metallurgical coke plant in Toledo,” Weber stated in the letter.

“It took six years to get through ERAC instead of the usual 60 days. The district judge sent it back to ERAC,” Kovacik said.

All Ohio regulatory and statutory rules and regulations were satisfied with the issuance of the permit by the Ohio EPA, review of the attorney general with approval and issuance by the governor’s office, Kovacik said.

The plant would be owned by bond holders using the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority with bank underwriters such as Merrill Lynch. It would be operated by a bonded and experienced industrial operating company satisfactory to the banks and Ohio municipalities.

Kovacik reported that the technology for the process to produce coke has been used successfully in the past 80 years in Australia, India, China and the U.S.

The FDS Coke Plant project has received the support of local governments and economic development groups in Northwest Ohio.

“The port authority supports this project which has passed every environmental review known to man. This argument is about a few individuals who are opposed to the project for nonenvironmental reasons,” said Matt Sapara, director of operations and property development for the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority.

The FDS project is proposed for a site owned by the port authority and currently leased to CSX Railroad, which is expected to release it back to the port authority for leasing to FDS. The site, on the borders of Toledo and Oregon, was chosen because of access to water and rail transportation, Sapara said.

“The project is also a catalyst for additional development on property owned by the port authority,” he said. It would increase the coal handling capacity of the Port of Toledo.

The City of Toledo is in full support of the FDS project. Mayor Mike Bell spoke to Kasich Jan. 31, expressing his support for the project and the importance of it to the region, according to Deputy Mayor Steve Herwat.

Kasich is scheduled to visit Toledo Feb. 7 to speak at a joint lunch event sponsored by the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club of Toledo at the Park Inn, according to Connie Wehrkamp, deputy press secretary for the governor.

Herwat said the mayor and city officials hope to discuss the project with the governor during his visit.

Toledo and Oregon have a joint economic development agreement and will share payroll taxes generated by the project on a 50-50 basis, reported Herwat.

If the project proceeds, the City of Oregon is prepared to participate in the joint revenue sharing agreement with the City of Toledo, said Oregon City Councilman Jerry Peach.

Toledo City Councilman Rob Ludeman wrote a resolution in support of the EPA granting the permit for the FDS project that was passed by Council Jan. 25.

The Northwest Ohio Regional Economic Development Association (NORED) recommended the construction of the coke plant project in a recent letter to Kasich. It stated that “the continued delay by a very few activists at the expense of thousands is not only hurting the economic recovery of Northwest Ohio but the State of Ohio.”

The project was endorsed by the Ohio Contractors Association signed by members of its executive board, Kovacik said.

“This is the cleanest plant for producing coke in the country,” said Kovacik, who said the industry is now forced to get coke produced by pollution-generating plants in China to make steel here.

Court decision clears hurdle for FDS Coke Plant

The judgment concludes that the FDS Coke Plant’s Permit to Install (PTI) has not expired. The company made contractual agreements with Talon Consulting prior to the expiration date of their PTI, and the court found it “entered into a binding contractual obligation to undertake and complete within a reasonable time a continuing program of installation,” required by law.

“What I know is the ruling from the ERAC was the last hurdle for the company. This has been going on for almost eight years and this was the last hurdle to allow them to move forward,” said Dean Monske, deputy mayor of operations for the City of Toledo.

The city will meet with the principals of the company in the next 30 days to discuss the plan and scope for the current project and how the city can assist the company as they move forward, Monske said.

“A project of this magnitude would be a nice shot in the arm for Toledo,” Monske said.

How many jobs will be created will be dictated by the scope of the project today, but Monske believes the FDS Coke Plant will create a similar number of jobs as originally proposed.

The FDS Coke Plant was proposed to be built on the Toledo-Oregon border, with docks on the Maumee River, in 2006. The facility has faced controversy and court battles concerning environmental issues and permits to build, that have prevented construction from taking place.

The facility was proposed to be 140,000 quare feet, on 53 acres and will produce metallurgical coke to be used in the production of steel. It would provide $800 million in investment and create approximately 150 full time jobs and numerous construction jobs.

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